Ladies suffer United defeat

Spurs Ladies suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time this season after a disappointing 5-1 loss to title rivals Manchester United on Sunday, writes Rosie Bonass.

Although it wasn’t the desired result, the ladies set a new attendance record at Cheshunt FC with 1,607 fans present for the final home game of the 2018/19 campaign.

Karen Hills’ side made the worst possible start as they went 2-0 down inside 12 minutes – Katie Zelem provided the early goals for the visitors. A free-kick from captain Jenna Schillaci halved the deficit and gave Spurs a glimmer of hope, however the half-time whistle came at the wrong stage for the home side, who were just starting to gain momentum.

United showed their strength in the second half and went on to dominate the game with goals from Mollie Green, Jess Sigsworth and Leah Galton. Spurs are now four points behind the Red Devils, who have a game in hand. The Lilywhites face a big challenge in their quest for promotion with three tough away games remaining against Charlton, Aston Villa and Durham.

Hills was without England Under-19 starlet Jessica Naz, who missed out through injury, while head coach Juan Amoros was absent from the dugout due to personal reasons.

Zelem put the visitors ahead after four minutes – a looping effort from the midfielder, helped in by the wind, beat Chloe Morgan on her line. Eight minutes later, Zelem tucked away a penalty following a foul from Megan Wynne on Galton.

Schillaci brought the Lilywhites back into the game after 35 minutes – her free-kick from over 20 yards out flashed past the United players into the bottom left corner.

The visitors scored their third within two minutes of the interval as Green converted Galton’s cross. Sigsworth extended United’s lead with nine minutes remaining – her header from Lizzie Arnot’s cross made it 4-1, before Galton turned in Zelem’s cross minutes before the full-time whistle.

Match reaction

“5-1 is not the greatest reflection of the game,” manager Hills said at full-time. “For us it was about trying to stay in the game and unfortunately that game plan went out of the window early on – conceding two early goals is always going to put us on the back-foot. The girls regrouped and getting that goal before half-time was positive and we went in at the break knowing we still had a chance. Then we conceded early again – that was a sucker punch for us. Then you’re coming up against a full-time team and you’re 3-1 down, you’re swimming against the tide. We’re not going to dwell on it, we just move on, remain positive and go back into training. We’ve got three really important games coming up and we’ll come back stronger.”

Defender Reneé Hector added: “We ended the first half really well and I think we were on top, we didn’t want the first half to end but then it was obviously quite difficult when it went to 3-1. They’re a very good side, but I think a few of the goals we conceded could have been avoided. At the end of the day, it’s a learning curve and we’ll go back to the drawing board, look at what happened and try and eradicate that for next time. It’s definitely not over and we may have made it slightly more difficult for ourselves but I have every confidence in this team and we’ll fight until the end.”

Match data

Goals: Spurs Ladies - Schillaci 35; Manchester United - Zelem, 4, 12 (pen), Green 47, Sigsworth 81, Galton 87.

Referee: Abigail Bryne.

Venue: Cheshunt FC.

Attendance: 1,607.